1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a point-of-sale (hereinafter, POS) terminal widely used in supermarkets, convenience stores, and various kinds of retail outlets. More particularly, this invention is concerned with a POS terminal for enabling a package discount to be provided for a commodity for which the package discount is available but which was not previously provided, and a commodity for which the package discount is available and which is currently being purchased.
In recent years, a package discount has been utilized as an effective discounting means for increasing the number of customers at shopping centers and supermarkets.
According to the present invention, for the package discount, when goods purchased by a shopper include a commodity eligible for the package discount but which is not currently being purchased as a package, a coupon is issued by recording information concerning the commodity, for example, in the form of bar codes on the lower part of a receipt. If a package discount is provided for commodities recorded in the coupon and a commodity subsequently purchased, a given discount is allowed.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, efforts have been made to establish superiority over competitors in the marketing industry. As one sales strategy, there is a trend toward providing special services for increasing customer satisfaction. A package discount has been adopted as one sales method for providing these services.
To begin with, mention will be made of a package discount as directly related to the present invention.
One type of package discount, which is referred to as a bundle mix (BM) in this specification, one in which, for example, when packages of cookies, candies, chocolate, and chewing gum are each priced at 380 yen, if any three of these are purchased at the same time, the total price of 1140 yen is reduced to 1000 yen.
Another type of the package discount, which is referred to as a pair match (PM) in this specification, is one in which, for example, when the unit price of a bottle of shampoo is 500 yen and the unit price of a bottle of hair rinse is 450 yen, if a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of hair rinse that are eligible for pair match are purchased together, the total price of 950 yen is reduced to 800 yen.
To take advantage of a package discount given by supermarkets or the like, a shopper has had to buy all the goods required to comprise a package of specified commodities at the same time. Shoppers, therefore, tend to feel that they are paying too much money for these goods when buying them at unit prices. Therefore, retail sales stores suffer from lost sales.